The following report will examine the demographics of Central Falls, the level of poverty within the school and the past few years data of NECAP testing in Central Falls High School. With this data, I hope to make conclusions about whether or not NCLB or RTTT have demonstrated a helpful alteration to this particular school.
"The mission of Central Falls High School is to cultivate academic, social and civic responsibility within the school community as we prepare students for participation in global society." Central Falls High School's goal was once considered a far reach considering the publicity the school has received within the past few years. Central Falls High School is noted as Rhode Islands lowest performing high school. The demographics of the school include a large number of ELL students and a larger proportion of blacks and Hispanics than whites. Central Falls as a whole has a greater number of children requiring free or reduced lunch indicating poverty. Central Falls also has a larger amount of crime and a larger proportion of single mothers (Kids Count).
The school website highlights that they are currently employing "transformation efforts" in order to increase graduation rates, improve proficiency in math and improve the school climate and culture. It might seem strange at first that the first thing a school would say about itself is a kind of apologetic description, however, in light of the recent education reform, the Common Core and the NECAP testing, the school has taken a lot of battering from commentators and education administration over the last few years.
In April of 2010, around 70 teachers, a few staff members, and the principal were fired from Central Falls High School. Despite the teacher’s union being against the proposal for reform of the school, the Central Falls school board voted to fire the teachers on recommendation from Frances Gallo, the school’s superintendent (huffpost). The school had a graduation rate of 48% and was known as the lowest performing school in Rhode Island (usa today)
NPR reporter, Claudio Sanchez, writes that the Central Falls school board re-hired the teachers on the condition that they would partake and support the school’s new reform “transformation.” However, since the rehiring, more teachers have been fired. Josh Karten, a history and business teacher for four years at Central Falls High School tells NPR reporters about his coping with the transformation and then being fired. NPR quotes Karten, saying that “Karten's enthusiasm took a dive after he was put in charge of the "restoration" room, a holding pen for the school's most disruptive students.” Karten asserts that the High School would not allow him to teach. Dispite Kartens purported struggle with the transformation, Superintendent Frances Gallo, asserts that there were valid reasons for firing Karten, and that it is unfortunate that he does not understand. Gallo and the Obama Administration seek to fix Central Falls High School by holding teachers accountable for students work and asserting that low expectations may be the cause of the school failing standardized tests as a whole (Sanchez, 2011).
Data from InfoWorks (2014) shows that there is a decrease in student attendance of 86% to 83% from 2001-2014. When evaluating the socioeconomic status there are a few indicators that one can observe. The stability index measures the percentage of students that have stayed in the district. The stability index went from 70% to 78% from 2001-2014. The mobility index measures the attrition rate of the school. The mobility index went from 41% to 24% 2001-2014. Possibly indicating that, despite a decrease in attendance, the population of citizens has become more stable over this period of time. The mobility indicates a less stable environment within the district, but it seems to be improving.
It is possible that some residents of Central Falls may have applied to charters, but there are only a couple of charter high school options within the immediate area. Currently, the student to teacher ratio is 13:1. Central Falls School District itself has a majority of students living in poverty as assessed by student eligibility for subsidized lunch programs, which decreased from 77% to 70% from 2001-2014. The majority of the students speak a language other than English, and the majority of the students are Hispanic in ethnicity.
Despite poverty and high amounts of ELL students, the school serves around 900 students and offers a variety of programs that they call Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOs). The school uses the Common Core standards and also Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). There is also a common planning time for the teachers and students to review their progress, and they use Response to Intervention (RTI) methods to help struggling students to reach the benchmark goals in academics. Central Falls High School is the only high school served in its district.
Have current reform efforts such as NCLB and RTTT affected RI schools, especially those that serve Rhode Island's most impoverished students?
In 2001, NCLB was implemented in the United States, and around 2010, a mass firing and rehiring of teachers occurred. Central Falls High School was noted as a target school for reform turnaround. The school's superintendent, Frances Gallo, fired all of the teachers at the school to prevent a strike back from the teacher's union, changed the structure of the school's education system, then re-hired the teachers back into the district in 2010. With this in mind, one might hypothesize that the data from before 2010 may be very different from the data after 2010, when the teachers were re-hired.
The graphs above show the NECAP scores for math and reading in CF as compared to RI (InfoWorks, 2014). It appears to be increasing.
As compared to the statewide average of NECAP. These are the current documented scores:
RI
Math - 35%
Reading - 81%
Writing - 66%
Science - 30%
The information below shows the scores of Central Falls High School before the 2010 reform movement. The only scores that went down were those for reading:
The graphs below show proficiency of the NECAP over the course of 3 years for Math and Reading. The categories of gender, race and status are separated. This is useful because it is easier to identify social inequalities from this graph. The trend of the graph appears to be generally upward:
It appears that proficiency is improving, however slightly. Central Falls does remain below the state average. One would argue that reform efforts, although raising test scores by a few points, have not made their purported improvements after the reform. It might be that NCLB or RTTT have an effect, but it is also just as likely that the stability of the district and lowered attrition rates played a part, or that the teachers this year got stuck with kids who could score better on the standardized test. There is still no mounting evidence that firing teachers for student achievement will improve a school, however, there is mounting evidence that Central Falls High School is improving.
*(Image from google)
The following report will examine the demographics of Central Falls, the level of poverty within the school and the past few years data of NECAP testing in Central Falls High School. With this data, I hope to make conclusions about whether or not NCLB or RTTT have demonstrated a helpful alteration to this particular school.
"The mission of Central Falls High School is to cultivate academic, social and civic responsibility within the school community as we prepare students for participation in global society." Central Falls High School's goal was once considered a far reach considering the publicity the school has received within the past few years. Central Falls High School is noted as Rhode Islands lowest performing high school. The demographics of the school include a large number of ELL students and a larger proportion of blacks and Hispanics than whites. Central Falls as a whole has a greater number of children requiring free or reduced lunch indicating poverty. Central Falls also has a larger amount of crime and a larger proportion of single mothers (Kids Count).
The school website highlights that they are currently employing "transformation efforts" in order to increase graduation rates, improve proficiency in math and improve the school climate and culture. It might seem strange at first that the first thing a school would say about itself is a kind of apologetic description, however, in light of the recent education reform, the Common Core and the NECAP testing, the school has taken a lot of battering from commentators and education administration over the last few years.
In April of 2010, around 70 teachers, a few staff members, and the principal were fired from Central Falls High School. Despite the teacher’s union being against the proposal for reform of the school, the Central Falls school board voted to fire the teachers on recommendation from Frances Gallo, the school’s superintendent (huffpost). The school had a graduation rate of 48% and was known as the lowest performing school in Rhode Island (usa today)
NPR reporter, Claudio Sanchez, writes that the Central Falls school board re-hired the teachers on the condition that they would partake and support the school’s new reform “transformation.” However, since the rehiring, more teachers have been fired. Josh Karten, a history and business teacher for four years at Central Falls High School tells NPR reporters about his coping with the transformation and then being fired. NPR quotes Karten, saying that “Karten's enthusiasm took a dive after he was put in charge of the "restoration" room, a holding pen for the school's most disruptive students.” Karten asserts that the High School would not allow him to teach. Dispite Kartens purported struggle with the transformation, Superintendent Frances Gallo, asserts that there were valid reasons for firing Karten, and that it is unfortunate that he does not understand. Gallo and the Obama Administration seek to fix Central Falls High School by holding teachers accountable for students work and asserting that low expectations may be the cause of the school failing standardized tests as a whole (Sanchez, 2011).
Data from InfoWorks (2014) shows that there is a decrease in student attendance of 86% to 83% from 2001-2014. When evaluating the socioeconomic status there are a few indicators that one can observe. The stability index measures the percentage of students that have stayed in the district. The stability index went from 70% to 78% from 2001-2014. The mobility index measures the attrition rate of the school. The mobility index went from 41% to 24% 2001-2014. Possibly indicating that, despite a decrease in attendance, the population of citizens has become more stable over this period of time. The mobility indicates a less stable environment within the district, but it seems to be improving.
It is possible that some residents of Central Falls may have applied to charters, but there are only a couple of charter high school options within the immediate area. Currently, the student to teacher ratio is 13:1. Central Falls School District itself has a majority of students living in poverty as assessed by student eligibility for subsidized lunch programs, which decreased from 77% to 70% from 2001-2014. The majority of the students speak a language other than English, and the majority of the students are Hispanic in ethnicity.
Despite poverty and high amounts of ELL students, the school serves around 900 students and offers a variety of programs that they call Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOs). The school uses the Common Core standards and also Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). There is also a common planning time for the teachers and students to review their progress, and they use Response to Intervention (RTI) methods to help struggling students to reach the benchmark goals in academics. Central Falls High School is the only high school served in its district.
Have current reform efforts such as NCLB and RTTT affected RI schools, especially those that serve Rhode Island's most impoverished students?
In 2001, NCLB was implemented in the United States, and around 2010, a mass firing and rehiring of teachers occurred. Central Falls High School was noted as a target school for reform turnaround. The school's superintendent, Frances Gallo, fired all of the teachers at the school to prevent a strike back from the teacher's union, changed the structure of the school's education system, then re-hired the teachers back into the district in 2010. With this in mind, one might hypothesize that the data from before 2010 may be very different from the data after 2010, when the teachers were re-hired.
The graphs above show the NECAP scores for math and reading in CF as compared to RI (InfoWorks, 2014). It appears to be increasing.
As compared to the statewide average of NECAP. These are the current documented scores:
CF
Math - 12%
Reading - 53%
Writing - 35%
Science - 8%
RI
Math - 35%
Reading - 81%
Writing - 66%
Science - 30%
The information below shows the scores of Central Falls High School before the 2010 reform movement. The only scores that went down were those for reading:
The graphs below show proficiency of the NECAP over the course of 3 years for Math and Reading. The categories of gender, race and status are separated. This is useful because it is easier to identify social inequalities from this graph. The trend of the graph appears to be generally upward:
It appears that proficiency is improving, however slightly. Central Falls does remain below the state average. One would argue that reform efforts, although raising test scores by a few points, have not made their purported improvements after the reform. It might be that NCLB or RTTT have an effect, but it is also just as likely that the stability of the district and lowered attrition rates played a part, or that the teachers this year got stuck with kids who could score better on the standardized test. There is still no mounting evidence that firing teachers for student achievement will improve a school, however, there is mounting evidence that Central Falls High School is improving.
References:
Central Falls High School. (2014). About us. cfschools.net, Retrieved from http://cfhs.cfschools.net/about-us.html
Baron, J. (2014, May 15). Senate knocks NECAP. The Times, P. A2
Information Works. (2014). Central Falls Senior High School. Measuring Rhode Island Schools for Change 2009, Retrieved from http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/queries/FindSch.asp
InfoWorks. (2014). Central Falls District. Rhode Island Education Data Reporting, Retrieved from infoworks.ride.ri.gov/district/central-falls
Kanalley, C. (2010). Rhode Island Teachers FIRED: Central Falls High School Officially Fires All Teachers. Huffington Post, Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/rhode-island-teachers-fir_n_475234.html
Sanchez, C. (2011, June 13). Changes at R.I. School Fail to Produce Results. National Public Radio, Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/06/13/137116333/central-falls
Stanglin, D. (2010, February 24). All teachers, principals fired at poor performing R.I. school. USA Today, Retrieved from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/school-board-fires-principal-and-every-teacher-at-poor-performing-high-school/1